EU moves towards central visa database by 2006

Europe plans to launch a centralised visa database by the end of next year to help curtail illegal immigration, European Union officials said yesterday.

The Visa Information System (VIS) will store data on people who apply for a visa at any of the 3,500 consulates run by countries that have signed up to the Schengen agreement, which facilitates the free movement of citizens across borders.

The aim of the database is to prevent one applicant, who has been denied a visa by one country, from obtaining a visa to another country with a falsified passport, officials said.

"VIS has two main goals: contributing to the internal security of the Member States and the fight against illegal immigration by supporting the common visa policy and the checks on the visa applicants," Franco Frattini, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, said in a statement.

The European Commission adopted the proposal for the database on short-stay visas earlier yesterday but it still has to be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament.